Auction Report: Pook and Pook Variety Results

Earlier this month, we previewed Pook and Pook Auctions’ two-day Variety sale. This Downingtown, Pa., company gained national attention in 1999 when it enjoyed the largest on-site single-day sale, grossing more than $4.3 million dollars.

The results are in for the Dec. 4 and 5 sale, which had a cross section of more than 1,500 lots of furniture, china, glass, jewelry, decorative arts and paintings.

The furniture was a collection of primarily American, English and a few Continental pieces for good measure. The realized prices for furniture were great if you were buying, not so great if you were selling. (Realized prices include a buyer’s premium of 17 percent added to the successful bid price up to a $1 million and 13 percent for any amount more than $1 million.)

Lot 29 was a New England stained-pine blanket chest, provincially simple and conforming to the design that translated throughout New England and the mid-Atlantic states. The estimate for this piece, as was the case for most of the furniture throughout the sale, was low at $200 to $400. It sold for $410, just breaking its estimate.

Blanket chest

Lot 43, a small New England mid- to late-19th-century dome-lid painted box, dimensions 11½ by 25½ inches, appeared to have its original hardware. Its estimate was $200-$400. This very nice antique piece sold for $293.

Dome-lid painted box

Lot 54 was a handsome inlayed mid-Atlantic Federal mahogany chest of drawers, circa 1810. Its estimate was $400 to $600. In keeping with the general tone of the sale, this gem walked off the floor with a hammer price of $761.

Federal mahogany chest

Lot 334 was a miscellaneous collection of 19th-century porcelain. The central-figured teapot with rosebud decoration was the collection’s draw. What we call a good, honest piece of Staffordshire. The estimate was $100-$200. The buyer of this collection knew what he or she was getting, as did several other bidders, and was willing to pay $380.

19th-century Staffordshire porcelain

Lot 805 was more Staffordshire porcelain. This offering had an important piece of transferware showing Lafayette at the tomb of Benjamin Franklin. Pictorial transferware has an excellent track record and consistently holds its value. The estimate was $300-$500. Passing its outside estimate by $144, this fine example of transferware went down for $644.

Staffordshire transferware

Lot 106 was a simple walnut Pennsylvania Chippendale tall chest, circa 1780, that went for a low price of $2,223. Pennsylvania furniture, especially from Lancaster County where this piece may have originated, has a long track record as being highly sought after. The buyer got a deal.

Chippendale tall chest

Lot 368 was a collection of approximately 25 items of sterling-silver serving pieces weighing 98 Troy ounces. It went for an amazing price of $878. The handsome Georgian-style coffeepot alone would retail for twice that much. Now is the time to be buying sterling.

Sterling-silver collection

Lot 393 not surprisingly realized a price of $2,574. This 12-piece collection of seaweed-decorated yellowware in better days would have realized approximately double that.

Seaweed yellowware

For the marbles collector, Lot 656 once again was a deal. The collection included a group of clay, Bennington pottery, glass and earthenware marbles, condition excellent and realized a hammer price of $439.

Marbles collection

– By Christopher Kent, a member of the WorthPoint board of advisers and director of evaluations for WorthPoint. He is also an antiques and collectibles generalist, fine-arts broker and president of CTK Design.

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i have a pewter chalice which i believe is 50 years old .Royal selangor very good condition 6 and a half inches tall nice color no staining or damage.Any idea of value or where I can get more info,thanks